Everyone at the Blackvale School for Girls has gone home for the holidays except for students Clara and Samantha and their teacher, Miss Tanner. When a gang of cult killers arrives at the school, intent on summoning a demonic force, the girls must fight to survive the night—but the demon has other plans for everyone involved.

For in-depth thoughts on The Sacrifice Game, please see my colleague Gaius Bolling’s review from its original streaming release here.

Video Quality

The film debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio which represents this feature to great effect. The movie has a reserved color palette that is faithfully saturated before coming alive more when introducing moments of festive lighting. Other lighting elements also make a good impression. The detail and clarity of the picture stand out even with so much of the film cloaked in shadow. With this transfer, you can embrace the details on display, especially in the period production design and costumes.

The movie unleashes darkness to ratchet up the tension, and the transfer provides strong black levels that do not experience much in the way of crush or other shortcomings. There is no damage or digital noise on display in this transfer. Objects hold up steadfastly in the shadows and retain their depth with minimal banding at hand. There is a discrete loss of detail when it comes to some of the panning shots in the shadows, but it is not a major issue throughout. We are grateful to have this in HD after only having DVD as an option originally.

Audio Quality

The Sacrifice Game arrives on Blu-Ray with an exceptional DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that comes alive as desired. Dialogue and various sound effects stay comfortably balanced throughout the duration. All elements play well with the music where nothing gets crowded out in the track. Surround channels provide some unsettling activity with the interior tones and other bumps in the darkness during any build-up to an unsettling reveal. The track’s low end provides some welcome texture when the tension is building. The movie digs deep when it needs to, and environmental sounds provide an all-encompassing atmosphere for the story. The experience matches the complexity of the narrative and will be appreciated by horror fans who pick up this disc. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Director / Co-Writer Jenn Wexler, Co-Writer Sean Redlitz, Producer Heather Buckley, Producer Albert Melamed, and Producer Philip Kalin provide a commentary track that offers up some great insights into the production process, the difficulties that arose, casting the performers, the location shooting, the production design used to evoke this time period, and so much more that rarely allows room for silent stretches.

Behind The Scenes Featurette: A 22-minute piece in which the cast and creative team discuss the pre-production process, the themes of the story, the qualities of the characters and the actors that portray them, the filming process, finishing the film in post-production, and more.

Behind The Scenes Still Gallery: A three-minute collection of behind-the-scenes photos is provided.

Twilight of the Flesh Music Video: A two-and-a-half-minute music video for the Antoni Maiovvi song is provided.

Original Trailer (1:43)

Final Thoughts

The Sacrifice Game is a satisfying bit of holiday horror that gets a bit messy with the genre-hopping but largely succeeds in keeping things cohesive. The subversion of genre tropes is not quite as successful as other similar horror surprises, yet the film really thrives with the dispensation of the narrative developments and getting you invested in the characters. The film uses its smaller scale to evoke a proper sense of isolation juxtaposed with the traditional festive atmosphere. Shudder has released a Blu-Ray featuring a fantastic A/V presentation and a decent assortment of special features. If you are looking for something to liven up your holiday season, give this one a chance. Recommended

The Sacrifice Game is currently available to purchase on Standard Edition Blu-Ray or with a Limited Edition Slipcover exclusively through Vinegar Syndrome.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Shudder and OCN Distribution have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.